It was a busy summer Saturday on the Cape and the entire family, my son’s friend, and our 90 pound Airedale were piled into the Suburban. We’d already had a mishap with bags flying off of the top of the car on Highway 95. My husband was not happy. Now we were stuck in the traffic on route 6 in danger of missing our ferry which we had to book months ahead of time. If we missed it, who knows when our car would arrive. Things were not looking good.

My daughter said, “Ask, believe, receive and we’ll make the ferry.” So without a bathroom stop, only one bag of chips for 6 hours and a cranky driver and panting dog, we asked to make the ferry, we believed we’d make the ferry…. we made the ferry with about one minute to spare. The “Ask, Believe, Receive” mantra really resonated with me and I began to think about it as a tool that I could use for other things in my life.

So many successes begin with a question. A question opens the door to possibility. I’ve always told my kids, “You don’t ask, you don’t get.” Asking can take many forms. It could be a written list of goals. It could be a prayer you say every day. It could be a wish you think of each night before you go to bed.

But how ever you ask, when you make it real by writing it down, thinking it or saying it out loud, you make it a real possibility. When you put a wish, a desire, a goal out into universe, the universe goes to work on that ask. Your mind goes to work on it.

So many of us are afraid to ask. Maybe by asking, you’re afraid you’ll be disappointed. Maybe you don’t want to wish for something you think you can’t have. Maybe your desire is so deep you cannot speak it. But in order to receive, you must first ask. By writing, thinking, or speaking the ask, you are setting the wheels in motion. This is the beginning of the path to the get.

What are you asking for? Maybe you have a health issue you’d like to solve. Maybe it’s a relationship that needs repairing. Maybe it’s a business goal. Whatever it is, it’s time to get specific and write it down, wish it, speak it. The first step in Ask, Believe, Receive, is to ask.

If you keep a journal, write your asks. If you are a thinker, wish it in your mind. If you like to speak your desires, say it out loud. But you must continue to ask each day for what you desire. The purpose of expressing your ask, is to place the seed in the universe and in your subconscious. Your mind will work on your asks while you sleep and do other things. Opportunities will come your way that move the ask closer to fulfillment and sometimes you won’t even know why or how.

Believing you will succeed is the second powerful tool that you have with you now. It’s available to you 24/7. No one can take it away from you. When you believe you will succeed, amazing things happen. When you believe you’ll get better, you will. When you believe you’ll get a promotion, you will. When you believe you’ll find a mate, you will.

When you state your asks in the affirmative as if they’ve already happened, you are awakening your mind to the power of positive thinking. It’s a simple theory that’s been around for a long time. When you activate that power, you begin to bring the universe in alignment with your asks. Incredible things pop up in your path to guide you toward your goals. You being to receive the things you’ve asked for.

Now you are ready to receive. Sometimes I’ll go back in my journals and see an ask or a goal that I’d forgotten about and it has happened. I’ve received some amazing things much bigger than making the ferry that day.

If you work the process of Ask, Believe, Receive, you’ll see results. Asking is the same as goal setting and prayers. Believing is having faith that you will succeed. Receiving is the reward for asking and believing. What are you asking for?